Tapes Can Offer Home Viewers A Black Film Retrospective

Since February is ``Black History Month,`` what better time to reflect on Hollywood`s treatment of blacks and black life in America.

A surprising number of important films with black themes already are available on home video, and more will come as programmers continue to dip into their archives.

One of the first--and most embarrassing--depictions of blacks in America is found in D.W. Griffith`s epic Civil War drama ``Birth of a Nation`` (1915; Video Yesteryear), where blacks come across as shiftless fools and the Ku Klux Klan a magnificent savior.

``D.W. Griffith called `Birth of a Nation` a horrible mistake,`` says Elvis Mitchell, television critic for the L.A. Herald Examiner who critiques film for National Public Radio. ``Later, he tried to atone for it with

--all connected by man`s insensitivity toward his fellow man. While it may have shown Griffith`s appreciation for the evils of bigotry, it failed to quell the controversy that still swirls about ``Birth of a Nation.``

``Harlem Rides the Range`` (1939; Movie Buff Video) is one of dozens of relatively unknown films with all-black casts that were made in the 1930s and 1940s. This film uses the singing cowboy motif and stars Herb Jeffries, known then as ``The Bronze Buckaroo.``

Ask for this country`s finest movie and often as not ``Gone with the Wind`` (1939; MGM-UA Home Video, RCA VideoDiscs) is mentioned. Of course, the stars (Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard and Olivia de Havilland) and the plot (a selfish Southern belle pines away for the man she can`t have while the world around her goes to war) are well known. But ``Gone with the Wind``

deserves another viewing just to examine its racial portrayals and to appreciate the acting of Hattie McDaniel and Butterfly McQueen.

With the 1959 remake of ``Imitation of Life`` (MCA Home Video), starring Lana Turner, Hollywood finally had a critically successful film that soberly explored the anxieties of blacks passing for white.

Perhaps one of the most poignant, and understated, views of white hatred of blacks is found in ``To Kill a Mockingbird`` (1962; MCA Home Video). Gregory Peck won an Oscar for Best Actor for his role as a Southern lawyer who defends a black man against a trumped-up rape charge, alienating his friends but endearing himself to his two motherless children. The film is also noteworthy for Robert Duvall`s film debut.

``Lilies of the Field`` (1963; Key Video) is one of those ``little``

movies that flirts with greatness. Sidney Poitier`s role as an unconventional U.S. Army veteran who helps build a chapel for five Eastern European refugee nuns earned him the first--and only--Best Actor Academy Award won by a black. Hollywood turned to Poitier again with ``In the Heat of the Night``

(1967; CBS-Fox Video, RCA VideoDiscs) and came up with another highly acclaimed film. It won five Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Rod Steiger and Best Screenplay. The story involves a well-educated black homicide detective who gets the upper hand with and eventually the respect of a racist white Southern sheriff.

By the early 1970s, ``blacksploitation`` films had caught on, with such titles as ``Sweet, Sweetback`s Baadasssss Song`` (1971; Sun Video, Magnum Entertainment), about a black pimp who kills two policemen guilty of racial hatred; ``Shaft`` (1971; MGM-UA Home Video), about a black private eye hired to rescue a Harlem ganglord`s kidnapped daughter; and ``Superfly`` (1972;

Warner Home Video), about a Harlem drug dealer after one last big score.

But it wasn`t all exploitation. ``Lady Sings The Blues`` (1972; Paramount Home Video; RCA VideoDiscs) and to an even greater extent ``Sounder`` (1972;

Embassy Home Entertainment) also were made during this period and proved that an all-black cast could appeal to a white audience.

Few programs have captured the interest or audience that ``Roots`` (1977; Warner Home Video) commanded when it first was broadcast nearly a decade ago.